PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

Katie Flynn

Discover the emotionally gripping new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling historical fiction and family saga author. 
_________________ 
 
Liverpool, 1919. 
 
The Great War is over, but Polly Caveney’s nightmare is only just beginning. And when a shocking discovery forces her to flee into the frozen night, danger shadows her every step. 
 
Seeking shelter in a travelling winter fair, Polly finds refuge inside one of the wagons - only to be faced with mortal danger. All seems lost until Fergus Farrell, the fair owner’s son, comes to her rescue, his steady kindness becoming her only anchor as the fair rolls south. 
 
But with Fergus belonging to the road and Polly to the settled world, their lives couldn't be more different. And the gulf separating them only grows as Polly’s past continues to threaten their future. 
 
Will true love find a way? Or will her ghosts forever haunt her? 
_______________________ 
 
WHY READERS LOVE KATIE FLYNN: 
 
'Takes you on a journey of heartbreak and joy' 
'Hard to put down' 
'Her characters are like old friends' 
'Heartwarming romance'

The Winter Fair

One of bestselling author Katie Flynn's contemporary novels reissued for the first time 
 
In the Norfolk town of Haisby, Harbour Hill climbs from the harbour to the cliff-top - a road of run-down grandeur, its mansions now bedsits and guest houses. 
 
It is here that two girls take a flat in the mouse-ridden premises owned by Gilbert the Grope. Nicola tries to forget the past and learn independence, whilst Ceri meets Tom, but how can anyone love a man who laughs at everything, including her? 
 
Harbour Hill is the compelling story of the dramatic events which change – and enrich – their lives.

Harbour Hill

One of bestselling author Katie Flynn's contemporary novels reissued for the first time 
 
For the shopkeepers who work in the Arcade in the seaside town of Haisby, life is not always easy. 
 
Diane Hopgood has moved from the bright lights of London to start a fashion boutique, expecting a quiet life, she finds both love and drama. 
 
Anthea, her assistant, has finally managed to free herself of the dark memories of her father’s sadistic abuse. But a terrible event changes everything for her. 
 
Marj cooks and waits tables at the wine bar, under the watchful eye of Martin, a chef of undoubted genius, despite his passion for women. Why has he never noticed Marj, though? 
 
As the shopkeepers struggle to make a living, each of them finds their life changing over the course of one eventful year.

The Arcade

Liverpool, Christmas 1938. Rose McAllister is waiting for her husband, Steve, to come home. He is a seaman, often drunk and violent, but Rose does her best to cope and see that her daughters, Daisy and Petal, suffer as little as possible. Steve, however, realises that war is coming and tries to reform, but on his last night home, he pawns the girls' new dolls to go on a drinking binge. 
 
When war is declared Rose has a good job but agrees the children must be evacuated. Daisy and Petal are happy at first, but circumstances change and they are put in the care of a woman who hates all scousers and taunts them with the destruction of their city. They run away, arriving home on the worst night of the May Blitz. Rose is attending the birth of her friend's baby and goes back to Bernard Terrace to find her home has received a direct hit, and is told that the children were seen entering the house the previous evening. Devastated, she throws herself into the war effort, risking her life before she considers finding out what really happened that fateful night... 
 
A Long and Lonely Road is yet another confirmation of the brilliance and warmth of Katie Flynn's saga novels.

A Long And Lonely Road

The first installment in the brand new Runaway's series from the Sunday Times bestselling author. 
 
Tammy and her mother, Grace, are desperate to escape Tammy’s violent bully of a father. But when an unforeseen tragedy strikes, mother and daughter must flee Scotland in the dead of night. 
 
To survive the severest of penalties, they leave behind everything they know and love – including one another. 
 
Under new identities, Tammy and Grace must start afresh. Tammy joins the services and there she meets a dashing officer who begins to break her guard down. 
 
But can the course of true love ever run smooth with Tammy unable to reveal her true self? 
 
 
Sunday Times bestseller, March 2024

The Winter Runaway

The war to end all wars has come to an end and Nell Tanner is overjoyed to have her father home. But the harsh reality of post-war Britain soon leaves her dreams of a brighter future in tatters. 
 
And when her best friend, Alfie, is posted miles away from home, Nell’s already fractured heart breaks in two. She’s realised all too late that her feelings for him run far deeper than friendship. 
 
Believing there’s no chance for her and Alfie, Nell sets out to rebuild her life and is comforted when she meets the handsome Thomas Evans. 
 
But Thomas is burying secrets of his own. And Nell is left questioning whether her new beau played fair to win his belle. . .

The Mersey Queen

Sometimes hope is all you need... 
Liverpool, 1917: When Irish seaman Michael Gallagher docks in Liverpool after years of fighting with the British Navy, he never expects to fall in love. But the moment he glimpses Stella Bennett standing on the quayside, all thoughts of returning to his homeland vanish. 
 
Determined to be together, the young couple defy Stella’s parents’ wishes. But their plans to marry are soon derailed by the arrival of baby Ginny. Her crop of fiery red hair plants a seed of doubt in her father’s mind and it’s not long before their world begins to fall apart. As Michael returns to Ireland, Stella dies unexpectedly, leaving Ginny to be brought up in the slums at the mercy of her grandmother. 
 
Will she escape the shackles of her new life and find a way back to her father?

A Kiss And A Promise

Orphans of the Storm

When war breaks out in Britain, Nell Whitaker is sent to live with her aunt on a remote farm in Anglesey. 
 
She sorely misses thriving Liverpool but slowly begins to embrace country life. Nell even finds herself growing closer to Auntie Kath whose harsh attitude hides a kind heart. 
 
But when personal tragedy strikes, Nell's world crumbles around her. 
 
Can a blossoming friendship with Hywell, a boy from the neighbouring village, allow Nell to overcome her past and enjoy a brighter future?

The Lost Days of Summer

An engaging and heartwarming story from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Addy and Prue Fairweather live with Nell, their widowed mother, in a flat above her shop on the Scotland Road. The sisters, however, are very different. Addy is dark-haired, plain and always in trouble whereas Prue is flaxen-haired, blue-eyed and as angelic as her looks imply. To make matters worse, Nell makes no secret of her preference for the younger girl, increasing Addy's jealousy and resentment. 
 
On the other side of the coin, Giles Frobisher and his twin sister, Gillian, live in a crumbling mansion near the sea in Devon. The family have lost most of their money in the Depression, so Giles leaves university and joins the Fleet Air Arm. He meets the Fairweather girls briefly on a visit to Liverpool but they lose touch. When they meet again Addy and Prue are no longer children and Giles realises he is falling in love ...

In Time for Christmas

Young Kitty Drinkwater lives in Paradise Court, just off Burlington Street. Life is tough in Liverpool in the years after the First World War and Kitty is always hungry and dressed in rags. As the eldest child, she is the scapegoat for her feckless, drunken mother. She dreams of a better life... 
 
Lilac Larkin's prospects, by contrast, are very different; she is beautiful, self-possessed young woman, and even when her pleasant job as a lady's maid comes to an end and she starts work in a bag factory, she is sure that her life will be full of promise and excitement... 
 
So when the two girls meet by chance in a millinery shop, neither can have any idea what changes in their lives the encounter will bring nor how strangely fate will work to bring them together once more.

The Girl From Penny Lane

A family divided by war but united by love. 
 
Marianne seems to have everything. She is married to a handsome naval officer, Neil Sheridan, commander of a corvette. They have a daughter, Libby, and a beautiful home near Prince's Park in Liverpool. 
 
When war comes, Marianne takes war work and moves into Crocus Street with her mother, Mrs Wainwright, and younger sister. Neil disapproves because the Wainwrights live so near the docks, which are bound to be a bombing target, but Marianne is firm. 
 
Meanwhile, Libby is evacuated to the country to stay with Miss Williams, who lives in an ancient house, Tregarth, at the head of a valley in North Wales and Libby, the wheelchair-bound Matthew and Miss Williams assume they can settle down to see out the war in comparative safety. 
 
But Libby is forced to return to the city when her mother suffers an accident and her gran finds herself unable to cope ...

Such Sweet Sorrow

It takes courage to overcome the odds... 
 
Liverpool 1928: abandoned by her mother at a very young age, Dot McCann lives a lonely life with her distant aunt and uncle. A cuckoo in the nest, she spends her days trying to keep out of trouble. 
 
When Dot overhears a conversation whilst playing in the street, her life changes for ever. What she discovers could send one man to prison and another to the gallows. In a desperate attempt to right a wrong, Dot teams up with runaway orphan Corky, Emma, a local jeweller whose shop has been burgled, and Nick, a handsome young reporter investigating the crime. 
 
But Dot and Emma have been recognised and they soon find themselves in very real danger. Will they uncover the truth before it’s too late?

The Cuckoo Child

A Liverpool Family Saga

Liverpool, 1923 
 
Lizzie is an orphan living with her Aunt Annie, Uncle Perce and two boy cousins in Cranberry Court, within a stone's throw of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Lizzie loves her aunt but is hated by her uncle and escapes whenever she can. 
 
She makes friends with Geoff Gardiner, another orphan, and is teaching him to swim in the Scaldy when Clem Gilligan rescues the pair of them from drowning. Clem works on the Canal boat, The Liverpool Rose, with Jake Pridmore and his wife, plying between the great cities of Leeds and Liverpool. 
 
But Lizzie's situation at home starts to worsen as her uncle grows surlier and more violent. Eventually the worst happens and Lizzie is forced to flee from the Court or risk serious injury, perhaps even death. Her first instinct is to make for the canal, but finding Clem is not so easy . . .

The Liverpool Rose

A heart-tugging read - Yours 
 
Heartwarming - My Weekly 
 
You won't be able to put this down until you have read every word - No. 1 
 
One of the country's most popular storytellers - Scottish Daily Record

A Sixpenny Christmas

A powerful story of two sisters, and the love that changed their lives 
 
It wasn't a privileged childhood, but it was a happy one. Sybil and Lizzie Cream, brought up in a fisherman's cottage on the edge of the cold North Sea were content to leave privilege where it belonged: with their friends the Wintertons. Christina Winterton was the same age as Sybil and the two girls were inseparable, but it was Lizzie whom Ralph Winterton, three years older, found irresistible. 
 
Then war came to East Anglia, and so did Manchester-born Fenn Kitzmann now of the American Army Air Force. At their first meeting he is attracted by Sybil's subtle charm, but before he sees her again her own personal tragedy has struck, and he finds her changed almost out of recognition...

First Love, Last Love

It is the autumn of 1945 and identical twins Joy and Gillian Lawrence are on their way home to Liverpool, having been evacuated to Devonshire five years earlier.Their mother has been killed in the blitz but the girls hope that with their beloved father's help they will be able to manage without assistance. 
 
All goes well until there is a terrible accident and Joy loses her sight.At first she is bitter and resentful whilst Gillian is racked with guilt.However, as time passes Joy gains confidence, hopeful that her sight will return since life is not easy when you can't see the face of the boy you think you love. 
 
Then there is a chance meeting on a train and once more the girls lives are in turmoil...

Christmas Wishes

Liverpool: Christmas Day 1924. 
 
When twelve-year-old Sara Cordwainer, the unloved child of rich and fashionable parents, sees a ragged girl with a baby in her arms outside her church, she stops to talk to her, pressing her collection money into the girl's icy hand. But from this generous act comes a tragedy which will haunt her for years. 
 
When, years later, Sara meets Brogan, a young Irishman working in England, she feels she has found a friend at last. But Brogan has a secret which he dare tell no one, not even Sara. 
 
And in a Dublin slum, Brogan's little sister Polly is growing up. The only girl in a family of boys, she knows herself to be much loved, but it is not until Sara begins to work at the Salvation Army children's home, Strawberry Fields, that the two girls meet - and Brogan's secret is told at last...

Strawberry Fields

Madeleine - the spoilt daughter of wealthy parents who abandons her babies to search for the only man she will ever have.Megan - hungry for affection and for the twin she can barely remember, she has needs which not even the most loving of foster families can fully satisfy.Marsha - the lucky little rich girl who always gets what she wants ,especially when her desires are the same as her sister's.  So when fate brings them together she sees no reason why she should not have everything Megan has - even Danny.Nobody's Children is the saga of twins, separated at birth but drawn together by an intangible bond... and of their mother, the beautiful, unhappy child bride, forever searching, forever unsatisfied.

Nobody's Children

Liverpool, 1904. When Ada Docherty gives birth to twins, Deidre and Donal, in her tiny house in Evangelist Court, she has no choice but to make Ellen, her eldest daughter, bring them up, for she must work to feed seven hungry mouths. But in Dublin, Maggie McVeigh's lot is even harder, for she sleeps on straw in a tumbledown tenement. When a local woman, Mrs Nolan, needs someone to look after her sons, Maggie takes on the job and finds security and comfort - and love, too, with the eldest boy, Liam. When war is declared, life changes dramatically. Ellen, newly in love, follows her young man to France - but does he share her feelings? A tragedy sends Liam off to the trenches whilst at home wartime shortages and a constant stream of bad news affect both families. But a surprise is awaiting them. Let yourself be swept away by this warm and delightful story of two families struggling through poverty and hardship to reach their Rainbow's End.

Rainbow's End

Liverpool, 1902. Bill and Isobel Logan scratch a living by selling their shrimps around the streets, but Amy, their youngest daughter, hates the smell, about which their neighbour, Paddy Keagan, constantly taunts her. 
 
When Isobel dies, Bill marries Suzie Keagan, a good-looking widow but lazy and selfish. The Keagans move in and tension begins to mount ... 
 
Amy is desperate to get away. She takes a room-share in the city centre but Liverpool is in turmoil with strikes and riots, and life is hard for young girls. Furthermore, Amy's visits home are spoiled by the presence of the hated Paddy ... 
 
A warm and moving story of young people and their loves and jealousies, played out against the hardship and humour of their Liverpool background.

The Girl From Seaforth Sands

Along a blacked-out wartime street a girl is scurrying, a basket on one arm. As the sirens begin and the bombs crash down, she is filled with panic and, with a heavy heart, abandons her burden in a sheltered doorway, meaning to return later. Even as she disappears in the resulting chaos, the bundle in the basket begins to wail. 
 
Years later, two young unfortunates meet on a miserable November day. Martin has been desperately trying to hitch a lift along the lonely windswept road and when he sees a weeping girl in front of him, he hurries to catch her up. 
 
Rose and Martin become unlikely companions until they go their separate ways, not expecting to meet again. However, fate decrees otherwise ...

A Mother's Hope

It is a cold night and Sylvie Dugdale is weeping as she walks by the Mersey. A figure approaches and, dodging aside to avoid him, she falls into the river. 
 
Constable Brendan O'Hara, just coming off duty, sees the girl's plight and dives in to rescue her. He is dazzled by her beauty but Sylvie's husband is in prison and the closeness that Brendan soon longs for is impossible. 
 
Sylvie has to escape from Liverpool, so Brendan arranges for her to stay with his cousin Caitlin in Dublin until it is safe to return. There she meets Maeve, a crippled girl from the slums, who will change all their lives when a little girl is lost ...

Little Girl Lost

Laura Collins, a widow, is struggling to make a good life for her daughters, Tess and Tina.They are living with Laura's sister Millie and her seven children so when Laura is offered a good job, with accommodation, she is delighted. 
 
Life is very different for the Brewsters, living on Manor Farm in Herefordshire.Danny and his girlfriend, Sophie, intend to marry one day so that they can run Manor Farm together but his cousin and best friend, Phil Ryland, feels differently.He longs to get away from farming and intends to escape as soon as he can. 
 
Then war comes and changes everything.Tina is evacuated and Tess joins the Land Army.She means to be true to her boyfriend, Mike, but he is far away.Danny and Phil join the RAF, Danny to pilot bombers and Phil as navigator.They end up on the same airfield and fall in love with the same girl...But Phil has a secret which could end his chance of happiness, and Danny is the only person who knows what that secret is ...

Beyond the Blue Hills

A World War 2 Family Saga

Liverpool, 1934. Hester Lowe agrees to act as governess to spoilt, self-willed, little Lonnie Hetherington-Smith when they leave India to live with Lonnie's elderly aunt in Shaw Street, Liverpool. Hester speedily realises that her new employer dislikes her niece and means to make life uncomfortable for both of them. 
 
Things improve a little when they meet the poor, but happy, Bailey family who live in a court off Heyworth Street. Hester likes Dick Bailey very much, but her employer does not permit 'followers', whilst Lonnie and young Ben Bailey are deadly enemies. 
 
Then, the regime in Shaw Street changes and Hester is forced to leave the comforts of a middle-class household to make her own way in what is, to her, a strange country... 
 
Poor Little Rich Girl is sure to please the huge and growing fanbase of one of the most popular saga authors in the country, with more than two million books sold nationwide.

Poor Little Rich Girl

Family Saga

Claudia and her younger sister, Jenny, live with their parents, Louisa and Cormack Muldoon, in their grandmother's house in Blodwen Street.  Louisa has a good job in a dress shop on Scotland Road and Cormack is a supervisor at the nearby tobacco manufactory.  They assume they are settled for life, but then Grandpa Muldoon has a seizure and begs his son to return to Kilnevin and the family croft.

Heading Home

It was only a mistletoe kiss, Miss Preece told herself, stepping out into the icy December evening and locking the library doors behind her. A mistletoe kiss means nothing, everyone knows that; but this did not quench the warm glow inside her. 
 
Hetty Gilbert is a canal child with no permanent address, so when she needs to join the library, she cannot do so. Miss Preece dislikes children, but Hetty's longing for books touches a chord and she stretches the rules to allow the girl to read on the premises. 
 
Soon, Hetty's chief desire is to become a librarian like her friend. But with war on the horizon, their lives will never be the same. In 1939 Hetty joins in the war effort, for her knowledge of canal boats is desperately needed, whilst Miss Preece can only sit and listen to the dangers her young friend faces, knowing she herself can do nothing to help. 
 
But her chance will come, and with it the meaning behind that fragile mistletoe kiss ...

A Mistletoe Kiss

World War 2 Saga

Kay Duffield's fiancee is about to leave the country, and her own duty with the WAAF is imminent when she becomes a bride. The precious few days she spends with her new husband are quickly forgotten once she starts work as a balloon operator, trained for the heavy work in order to release more men to fight. There she makes friends with shy Emily Bevan, who has left her parents' hill farm in Wales for the first time; down-to-earth Biddy Bachelor, fresh from the horrors of the Liverpool bombing, and spirited Jo Stewart, the rebel among them, whose disregard for authority looks set to land them all in trouble. The girls stay friends through good times and bad, through romantic encounters and, ultimately, tragedy.

You Are My Sunshine

On 21st April 1926, three baby girls are born. In North Wales, Hester Coburn, a farm labourer's wife, gives birth to Nell, whilst in Norwich, in an exclusive nursing home, Anna is born to rich and pampered Constance Radwell. And in London, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, has her first child, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. 
 
The future looks straightforward for all three girls, yet before Nell is eight, she and Hester are forced to leave home, finding work with a travelling fair. Anna's happy security is threatened by her father's infidelities and her mother's jealousy, and the Princess's life is irrevocably altered by her uncle's abdication. 
 
Set in the hills of Wales and the rolling Norfolk countryside, the story follows Nell and Anna through their wartime adolescence into young womanhood as they struggle to overcome their problems, whilst watching 'their' Princess move towards her great destiny. Only when they finally meet do the two girls understand that each of them is 'someone special'.

Someone Special

When Dana and Caitlin meet by chance on the ferry from Ireland, they tell each other that they are simply going to search for work, but they soon realise they have more than that in common.They are both in search of new lives in Liverpool, leaving their secrets behind in Ireland. But Dana is ambitious and resourceful, and when the opportunity comes to own their own tearoom she persuades her friend to join her. 
 
No one is willing to rent property to a couple of girls, however, especially during the Depression. So when Caitlin's new man friend says he'll back them, they are delighted and soon the tearoom is thriving. 
 
Then fate intervenes, and soon the girls find themselves fighting to survive in a world on the brink of war.

Showing results for: ‘Katie Flynn’

Filters

Category

Publication Date

Format

Series

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter